Stats

Here we have a collection of Hudai (very top row) and Sendai (all the rest).

Hudai are, essentially, human cyborg conversions. The name Hudai actually began as a derogatory epithet and gradually reversed into the accepted term. The term Hudai (clearly a play off sendai) came to be due to normal humans disdain for their kind aspiring to be "like" the sendai ("Like" being the perceived view even when nonsensical).

The practice of Hudai conversions has been going on for hundreds of years, but became popularized by the FOIL pilots in the Polemon campaign. Many pilots, after suffering debilitating injuries, opted for this procedure to continue to participate in the Polemon campaign (also common for ground soldiers after sustaining mortal injuries). In doing so the use bond with their FOIL Faedai (sendai operating entity) deepened as they became even more empathetic to what the sendai are; bio-mechanical beings. The kinship would often grow stronger.

The explosion of popularity the FOILs and their pilots began to enjoy eventually overshadowed the offensive nature of the term Hudai. This phenomenon also began to change some of the outright racist perceptions many humans on Indus have toward sendai. Because FOIL combat is deeply rooted in honor the pilots adopted the term Hudai with pride. Though some humans still use the word with disdain the sheer magnetic cult of personality the FOILs and their pilots enjoy has lessened any negative power the word had on Polemos and even much of Indus now.

It should be noted Hudai are predominantly to be found on Polemos as their mostly illegal on Indus. The manufacture and indenturement (slavery) trade of sendai is deeply a part of the Indus culture and economy. Humans, on Indus, widely regard sendai as a lower class and simply a tool for economic profit. The idea of a human becoming like one is extremely offensive to many on Indus (though there are progressive political blocs that outright reject these callous views). Also the Hudai are treated as a form of competition to the sendai trade while behind closed doors many sendai manufacturers make Hudai components anyway.

The sendai pictured here are more common, rank and file, humanoid shaped types. All are wearing clothing, that often has to be custom made and tailored. Sendai tend to come in a variety of shapes, size (though rarely will they ever be over 6 feet), and functional intent. These guys are mostly non-combat types (save the fella with the rifle) however still incredibly dangerous to humans if provoked into violence.

The second to right on the bottom is accesing an Omni-sense terminal [link] and the little guy on the farthest right, bottom, apparently is coveting a box of chocolates or something.

You're correct, of course, about Theos Kai Polemos being the accurate spelling. As the story evolved the meaning of the title evolved slightly as well.

The title's meaning, in context of the story, is actually Theos KE (KE being an abbreviation for Kinetic Energy) Polemos implying a more violent collision of spirituality and war Theos >KE< Polemos = dissonance. In contrast Theos Kai Polemos (God and War) is more passive, less discordant (but the accurate usage, as you noted). Most will still read it as God and War and this is fine too as to context for the story. The title having a layered meaning and almost fractured inaccuracy is very much a mirror of the setting being both familiar and, somehow off or dysfunctional and dissonant.

Do appreciate you're noting this but I am aware of it. The setting of TKP has various mutations of language due to a massive disconnect the populace has with their sense of history.

Interesting mash up but I can't say any of that directly influenced the material.

If anything Star Wars but I think that's only because those films (the original trilogy especially) made such a massive impact on popular culture it's unavoidable to escape their influence on the human psyche.

Aye, they are indeed more in that territory but this project always had that as a huge aspect. In dealing with this kind of material (futuristic but still human dominated culture) I feel it's important to retain some personable and humanistic aspects to help balance more extreme aesthetics. It's a mixture of familiar and "alien" aesthetics in the setting but ultimately still has the hands of "humans" in the creations.

And it's fun to draw them of course There will be more of these types along with more unconventional or weird ones.

Close but not quite. Sendai are not as much robots as they are bio-mechanical lifeforms. So, in a way, a sendai is similar to a cyborg anyway only sendai are created, by humans, to be what they are. Hudai benefited from the technologies that were created for the sendai so it's not quite the classic robot or cyborg thing but I guess it's easier to think in that way describing them.

I've always loved your work. It's reminiscent of Kobayashi's "City in Labyrinth", but much more fully realized. The hudai (pronounced, I assume, "hew-die") feel more humane than Kobayashi's CiL characters (Jim Burns, for example). Not human, but humane - that's the only word I can come up with to describe your designs.

I'd be surprised to see one in the flesh, but not frightened. Congratulations on taking that into account with these designs!

Yeah they are kinda in that vein and you're right, the intent is odd but not too far, at least for these examples. There are some Hudai that are stranger but most tend to follow a more humanistic aesthetic.

Pronunciation is as you noted Hew-die.

Interesting you note City in the Labyrinth as it is something comparable (indeed I have that manga and Kobayashi was always a fav of mine as you know). In TKP it's far more complex and fleshed out as you noted (taking nothing away from Kobayashi's wonderful work and accomplishments).

TKP is more about an entire aspect of society that are essentially these little guys. I hope to do something that really shows a massively diverse populace of mechanized creatures without going too far into Star Wars land of over doing it.

There's a lot to come. In fact I just posted another collection of rough concepts in scraps [link] There's a lot of this stuff in my scraps too.

Yeah, it can depend on where you are as to that. Sendai "in the wild" are not always inclined to violence toward humans but there are indeed pockets of them on both, Indus and Polemos, you don't want to encounter.

Sendai is actually the name of a city in Japan but I wasn't aware of that fact when I came up with the whole Sendai naming thing. It came from the fictional name Taedai (plural for Taedus) and branched off into various names for these creatures utilizing the core word Sendai, as the racial term for all of them.

Yeah, sometimes that can be difficult. Some things can be easy if you are considering the function and intent in the name, however if you're dealing with a purely fictional name with deeper social, economic, and functional intent it can be tougher. The more you understand why you're creating something the easier it is.

LOL Well pretty much all these guys have button or zip forward tops. The Hudai guys heads are pretty close to human size so they're not much an issue, save the one with the shorts on. That guy would have to do button/zip forward. Good question really but yeah, there would be some kind of thing like that for odd shaped sendai.